Academic, teacher caught trying to flee massive purge in Turkey

Police detained an associate professor along with a teacher while they were planning to cross the Evros (Meriç) River from Turkey’s northeastern province of Edirne to Greece, on Sunday.

Edirne police stopped two suspects near the Evros River and detained them for interrogation upon information from neighborhood, at around 5 am. The detainees have turned out to be among 100,000 others who have been either suspended or fired from state institutions over coup charges.

Known by initials H.A, a former academic at Marmara University’s medical faculty and Ş.Ö, a former literature teacher at İstanbul’s Sancaktepe High School were taken under custody on suspicion of attempting to illegal crossing to Greece, while police seized their inflatable boat and paddles.

A crackdown that has followed a failed coup in Turkey has completely gone off the tracks with even well-educated citizens venturing risky journeys in order to get rid of the widespread purge.

The crackdown is not limited only to cleansing the state institutions as Turkey has already detained around 44,000 people and arrested 23,000 over their alleged ties to the Gülen Movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the coup attempt on July 15.

Amnesty International said on July 24 that detainees are subject to torture, maltreatment and even rape in prison.